Jim Thorpe The World's Greatest Athlete Facebook Describing Jim Thorpe as a great athlete would be doing him a severe injustice. A better description would be calling him the greatest athlete of the 20th Century. This label will probably be debated by many, but Thorpe's accomplishments speak louder than words. King Gustav V of Sweden told Thorpe: "Sir, you are the greatest athlete in the world." James Francis Thorpe was born on May 28, 1887 in a one-room cabin near Prague, Oklahoma. Although there is much confusion on Thorpe's date of birth, this is the date according to his estate. He was born to Hiram Thorpe, a farmer, and Mary James, a Pottawatomie Indian and descendant of the last great Sauk and Fox chief Black Hawk, a noted warrior and athlete. Jim was actually born a twin, but his brother Charlie died at the age of nine. His Indian name, Wa-Tho-Huk, translated to "Bright Path", something that Thorpe definitely had ahead of him. In 1904, Thorpe started school at Carlisle Industrial Indian School in Pennsylvania.

The establishment offered American Indians the opportunity to gain practical training in over 20 trades, in addition to off-campus employment at local farms, homes or industries. Thorpe began his athletic career at Carlisle, both playing football and running track. He was triumphantly selected as a third-team All-American in 1908, and in 1909 and 1910 he made the first team. Iconic football legend Glenn "Pop" Warner coached Thorpe at Carlisle and was able to see the young phenomenon evolve in his pursuant excellence with athletics. At the tender age of 24, Thorpe sailed with the American Olympic team to Stockholm, Sweden for the 1912 Olympic Games. Remarkably, he trained aboard the ship on the journey across sea. He blew away the competition in both the pentathlon and the decathlon and set records that would stand for decades. King Gustav V presented Thorpe with his gold medals for both accomplishments.

As stated in Bob Berontas' "Jim Thorpe, Sac and Fox Athlete": "Before Thorpe could walk away, the king grabbed his hand and uttered the sentence that was to follow for the rest of his life.’Sir,' he declared, 'you are the greatest athlete in the world,' Thorpe, never a man to stand on ceremony, answered simple and honestly, 'Thanks King.'" Thorpe's glorious Olympic wins were jeopardized in 1913 when it came out that he played two semi-professional seasons of baseball. The Olympics Committee had strict rules about Olympians receiving monetary compensation for participating in professional athletics. Thorpe, who stated he played for the love of the game and not the money, was put under the microscope. Ultimately, it was decided that his baseball experience adversely affected his amateur status in the track and field events. His name was removed from the record books and his gold medals were taken away. Thorpe moved on after the Olympic ordeal and signed to play baseball for the New York Giants. He played outfield with New York for three seasons before relocating and playing with the Cincinnati Reds in 1917.

He played 77 games with the Reds before finally returning to the Giants for an additional 26 games. In 1919 he played his final season in major league baseball, ending on the Boston Braves team. During much of his baseball years, Thorpe was also immersed in professional football. He played for the Canton (Ohio) Bulldogs from 1915 until 1920 and the Cleveland Indiana (Indians) in 1921. In the years following, he organized, coached and played with the Oorang Indians, a professional football team comprised completely of American Indians. Additionally, he was instrumental in forming the American Professional Football Association, and eventually became the president of the group. Through the years, the association evolved into today's NFL. In all, Thorpe played with six different teams during his career in pro football, ending with a stint with the Chicago Cardinals in 1929. Life after professional athletics was exciting for Thorpe. He worked as an extra in movies, served as superintendent of recreation in the Chicago Park System and was also quite vocal with matters of Indian affairs.

He also had stints as a public speaker/lecturer and even led an all-Indian song and dance troupe entitled "The Jim Thorpe Show." The Merchant Marines even had the honor of Thorpe's presence, as he served with beginning at age 58. Two monumental honors were bestowed unto Thorpe in 1950 when he was named "the greatest American football player" and the "greatest overall male athlete" by the Associated Press. Thorpe died on March 28, 1953 of a heart attack. The New York Times ran a front page story, remembering the athlete, stating that Thorpe "was a magnificent performer. He had all the strength, speed and coordination of the finest players, plus an incredible stamina. The tragedy of the loss of his Stockholm medals because of thoughtless and unimportant professionalism darkened much of his career and should have been rectified long ago. His memory should be kept for what it deserves--that of the greatest all-round athlete of our time." Thorpe's medals were finally restored to him posthumously in 1982. In addition, and most importantly to his family, his name was put back into the record books.

Thorpe had married three times and was blessed with eight children. In 1913, he married Iva Miller. Their first son, James Jr., died at age three from an influenza epidemic during World War I but their three daughters, Gail, Charlotte, and Grace, lived into the 1990s. He married Freeda Kirkpatrick in 1926 and they had four sons, Carl Phillip (deceased), William, Richard, and John (Jack). Jack Thorpe, the youngest, became principal chief of the Sauk and Fox in the 1980s. At the time of his death, Thorpe had been married to Patricia Askew for almost eight years. In 1950, the nation's press selected Jim Thorpe as the most outstanding athlete of the first half of the 20th Century and in 1996-2001, he was awarded ABC's Wide World of Sports Athlete of the Century. ESPN.com: Thorpe preceded Deion, Bo Thorpe preceded Deion, Bo Special to ESPN.com Didn't we hear about Jim Thorpe from our dad or granddad? We certainly never saw him in person.

But we sure knew the legend. He was the Olympic track champion who lost his gold medals because he played minor league baseball. Long before Bo and Deion, he was the athlete who played pro baseball and football at the same time. Jim Thorpe was an all-American in college as a four-position player. He was voted "The Greatest Athlete of the First Half of the Century" by the Associated Press and became a charter member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. But Thorpe's legend was galvanized into America's conscience at the 1912 Olympics. He won the decathlon and pentathlon in Stockholm. When King Gustav V of Sweden congratulated Thorpe, he said, "Sir, you are the greatest athlete in the world." Thorpe reputedly replied, "Thanks, king." He returned home a star. Thorpe's name was so big, he received that most American of honors -- a ticker-tape parade in New York City. "I heard people yelling my name," he said, "and I couldn't realize how one fellow could have so many friends." Later that year, Thorpe scored 25 touchdowns and 198 points to lead an outstanding Carlisle Indian School team.

That launched him toward a pro football career, highlighted in 1920 when he helped found the American Professional Football Association, which would evolve into the National Football League. That was the flash point for a turn in Thorpe's life. Although he would continue to write his legacy as an athlete nonpareil, he was stripped of his gold medals in 1913 after it was discovered he had violated amateur rules by being paid to play minor league baseball in 1909 and 1910. Attempts to have the medals returned were not rewarded until 1982, almost 30 years after Thorpe's death. He was born on May 28, 1888 near Prague, Okla., on Sac-and-Fox Indian land. His given name was Wa-Tho-Huk, which means "Bright Path." Thorpe was one of the few in his immediate family to have a long life. His twin brother Charles died of pneumonia at age 8. Both his parents died when he was a teenager. As a child, the rambunctious Thorpe became his athletic father's protege, at times running 20 miles home from school.

"I never was content," he said, "unless I was trying my skill in some game against my fellow playmates or testing my endurance and wits against some member of the animal kingdom." Although he showed immediate promise, Thorpe was only a star in his schoolyards. That changed in the spring of 1907. Attending Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania, Thorpe was clad in work clothes when he walked past track practice one day. He watched as others failed to clear a high-jump bar set at 5-9. Thorpe gave it a shot and, despite wearing heavy overalls, he cleared the bar easily. Two years later, the 5-foot-9 1/2-inch, 144-pound Thorpe almost single-handedly overcame the entire Lafayette track team at a meet in Easton, Pa., winning six events. "After it was all over, Thorpe couldn't tell you how he did it," Lafayette coach Harold Anson Bruce said.

"Everything came natural." During the summers of 1909 and 1910, Thorpe was paid - reports have him earning from $2 a game to $35 a week - for playing for Rocky Mountain in Fayetteville in the Class D Eastern Carolina League. He naively used his real name, unlike other collegians who adopted pseudonyms to foil amateur rules. Then again, Thorpe may have thought he would never compete as an amateur again. It took some arm-twisting by coach Pop Warner to get Thorpe to come back to Carlisle for the 1911 football season. Warner promoted Thorpe as "the greatest all-around athlete in the world." Thorpe dominated an 18-15 upset of highly regarded Harvard with his four field goals and outstanding running in front of 30,000 in Cambridge. It was the highlight of a season in which Thorpe, halfback/defender/punter/place-kicker, was named an All-American. Then came that grand summer of 1912. On July 7, he won the Olympic pentathlon.

The next day, he finished tied for fourth in the high jump and on July 13, he came in seventh in the long jump. Then came the decathlon, and Thorpe set a world record with 8,412 points. The standard Thorpe set was so high that, if he had duplicated his marks 36 years later, they would have held up well enough to win a silver medal. After collecting Olympic gold and New York ticker tape, Thorpe picked up where he left off for Warner's Carlisle football team. He ran spectacularly in a 27-6 Army win. In a Thanksgiving snowstorm, Thorpe had three touchdowns and two field goals in a 32-0 victory over Brown. He was named an All-American again. Two months later, Worcester (Mass.) Telegram writer Roy Johnson discovered Thorpe's pay-for-play past. Asked for his response by the Amateur Athletic Union, Thorpe wrote, "I hope I will be partly excused by the fact that I was simply an Indian schoolboy and did not know all about such things.

I was not very wise in the ways of the world and did not realize this was wrong." In January 1913, Thorpe was stripped of his amateur status and, with it, his two Olympic gold medals. After leaving Carlisle, Thorpe signed to play baseball and be a gate attraction for the New York Giants. He admitted he was more "a sitting hen, not a ballplayer." Troubled by the curveball, Thorpe hit only .252 in his six seasons (1913-15, 1917-19) as an outfielder with the Giants, Cincinnati Reds and Boston Braves. His best season was his last one, when he batted .327 in 60 games for Boston. ZONE POLL In 1915, Thorpe played two football games for the Canton Bulldogs for a pricey $250 per contest. He decided to stay on as the biggest drawing card for a team that would be recognized as "world champion" in 1916, 1917 and 1919. While playing for the Bulldogs in 1920, Thorpe was named the first president of the American Professional Football Association.

After playing with Cleveland in 1921, Thorpe created and played for the all-Native American Oorang Indians. Stints with Rock Island, the New York Giants and a return engagement with Canton followed through 1926. After more than a year out of football, Thorpe signed with the Chicago Cardinals to make one last appearance against the Chicago Bears on Nov. 30, 1928. "Jim Thorpe played a few minutes but was unable to get anywhere," one reporter wrote. "In his forties and muscle-bound, Thorpe was a mere shadow of his former self." Thorpe's days as a competitive athlete were over. Without sports, Thorpe drifted. His drinking, an issue before, became destructive. There were many fights, and almost as many jobs. He took odd jobs under assumed names, working as a painter, ditch digger, deck hand, auto-plant guard and bar bouncer. The fifties brought him renewed fame. Besides being named top athlete of the half-century, he was portrayed by Burt Lancaster in the 1951 film "Jim Thorpe All-American." Thorpe died at 64 of a heart attack on Mar.

28, 1953. By then, he was living in a trailer in Lomita, Cal. In 1954, his body was moved to Mauch Chunk, Pa., a small town which agreed to change its name to Jim Thorpe. Pleas to have Thorpe's good name restored to Olympic rolls persisted. They were based on a rule, in effect in 1912, which said officials had 30 days to contest an athlete's amateur status. Thorpe's standing did not come into question until six months after the Games. It was not until Oct. 13, 1982, that the International Olympic Committee finally agreed to restore Thorpe's gold medals. The following January, replicas were presented to Thorpe's family. Olympic decathlete Ashton Eaton says tennis is second most athletic sport - Business Insider print Cameron Spencer/Getty When a Native American named Jim Thorpe won the gold medal in the decathlon at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, legend has it that King Gustav V of Sweden presented him the medal and said, “You, sir, are the greatest athlete in the world.” "Thanks, king," Thorpe is rumored to have responded.

Exactly 100 years later, at the 2012 Olympics in London, Oregon-native Ashton Eaton became the latest in a long line of American Olympians to win the gold medal in the decathlon. He had previously set the world record in the event at the US Olympic trials, but as with every decathlete since Thorpe’s win in 1912, it was winning the Olympic gold that earned Eaton the formidable title of the world’s greatest athlete. Queen Elizabeth II was not, unfortunately, in attendance to present Eaton with his medal. Spanning two days and 10 events, the decathlon is, and has always been, sports’ best objective measurement of sheer athleticism. And Eaton is so convincingly great at the 10-sport contest that his times and scores in certain single events are comparable, and often better , than those of track-and-field athletes competing exclusively in that one event. “ The decathlon is the only standardized test that covers a broad range of athleticism that is absolutely measurable, which I feel is great,” Eaton told Business Insider this week while promoting his campaign with Chobani. “You run the 100, you get a time. You do the long jump, you get a distance.

You do the high jump, you get a height. You do a throw, you get a distance.” Ian Walton/Getty Yet as the world’s greatest athlete, Eaton is not, of course, competing against every other great athlete in the world. Some of them are off dunking basketballs, or fighting in a ring, or doing whatever it is one does on an American Ninja Warrior course. Which brings us to the ageless water-cooler debate about the nature of athleticism: Of the A-list athletes playing major sports — the superstars we see splayed across billboards and magazine covers; the ones we hear TV commentators call “athletic freaks” — who, really, is the most athletic? We posed this question to Eaton, expecting to hear him praise the likes of LeBron James, or Mike Trout, or Russell Westbrook. Instead, he gave a surprising answer. “I personally believe tennis is the next most athletic sport next to the decathlon,” Eaton said. “Just because of certain things required. Those matches are three or four hours long. There’s the technical aspect, the agility, the mind-body awareness.

Not to mention the game itself is a little bit like a chess match.” Watch Serena Williams approach the net for a swinging volley sometime and you can see where Eaton is coming from. But it’s still hard to believe that Novak Djokovic or Andy Murray, athletic as they undoubtedly are, really compare with the top NFL or NBA players. “You can speculate all day, by what you perceive people to do, but I think there’s two aspects to athleticism. I think there’s the body, and then there’s definitely the mind,” Eaton said. “People like to just focus on the body part. I don’t think that’s a holistic approach.” Ian Walton/Getty Plus, even with advanced metrics it’s still hard to quantify just how truly “athletic” a feat on a football or basketball field really is. “ You see somebody on a football field make a great, athletic 70-yard run, but the athleticism is immeasurable. It’s undoubtedly athletic, but compared to somebody else who did something else, how do you compare it? That’s the great part of track and field.

It’s a test, but with results that you can compare to others.” This is all well and good, but it doesn’t answer the question that has tantalized sports fans forever. Who is the world’s most athletic superstar? “ I don’t have one specific person that I think is the most athletic person,” Eaton said. “In my opinion, you’d have to do a really exhaustive study over a long period of time with really clearly defined metrics in order to get that.” In other words, you’d want them to compete in a decathlon. So what if LeBron James announced he was competing in the event this summer, along with — or instead of! — his duties for USA Basketball? Wouldn’t Eaton be slightly worried? “No, I wouldn't,” Eaton said matter-of-factly. “I have no doubt that anybody who did the first day of the decathlon would do great. The first day, yeah, is about being an athlete. But the second day you actually have to be a decathlete, and that’s the day where people show their true colors.” Memorable Olympic Moments: Jim Thorpe, Stockholm 1912 Encyclopedia: Track & Field Jim Thorpe startled the world in 1912 .

As part of the U.S. delegation competing at the 1912 Summer Games in Stockholm, he pulled off one of the most impressive sporting feats in history, simply destroying the world's best in the decathlon and pentathlon. Perhaps the greatest all-around athlete of all time, Thorpe, a Sac and Fox Indian, bested his competitors by enormous margins, finishing first in nine of the 15 separate track and field events that made up the two competitions. Thorpe was a track and football star under legendary coach Pop Warner at Carlisle Institute, a vocational school for Native Americans , before and after his trip to Stockholm. On the boat trip over to Sweden the naturally gifted Thorpe mostly napped while his teammates trained. At the Games' closing ceremonies King Gustav V told him, "Sir, you are the greatest athlete in the world!" To which Thorpe reportedly replied, "Thanks, king." In 1913, Thorpe was stripped of his two gold medals after the Amateur Athletic Union found out that he played for a minor-league baseball team from 1909–10. Plenty of amateur athletes played professional ball in those days, but did so under assumed names.

Thorpe's mistake was owning up to it and ironically, it would come out years later that Thorpe and his teammates at Carlisle were paid more for playing college football than for professional baseball . Not until 1982, almost 30 years after his death, was Thorpe given back his standing as a two-time Olympic gold medallist. More from 2012 Summer Olympics Did you know? The world's greatest athlete reveals which major pro sport requires the most athleticism The world's greatest athlete reveals which major pro sport requires the most athleticism Emmett Knowlton More (Cameron Spencer/Getty) When a Native American named Jim Thorpe won the gold medal in the decathlon at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, legend has it that King Gustav V of Sweden presented him the medal and said, “You, sir, are the greatest athlete in the world.” "Thanks, king," Thorpe is rumored to have responded. Exactly 100 years later, at the 2012 Olympics in London, Oregon-native Ashton Eaton became the latest in a long line of American Olympians to win the gold medal in the decathlon.

He had previously set the world record in the event at the US Olympic trials, but as with every decathlete since Thorpe’s win in 1912, it was winning the Olympic gold that earned Eaton the formidable title of the world’s greatest athlete. Queen Elizabeth II was not, unfortunately, in attendance to present Eaton with his medal. Spanning two days and 10 events, the decathlon is, and has always been, sports’ best objective measurement of sheer athleticism. And Eaton is so convincingly great at the 10-sport contest that his times and scores in certain single events are comparable, and often better, than those of track-and-field athletes competing exclusively in that one event. “The decathlon is the only standardized test that covers a broad range of athleticism that is absolutely measurable, which I feel is great,” Eaton told Business Insider this week while promoting his campaign with Chobani. “You run the 100, you get a time. You do the long jump, you get a distance. You do the high jump, you get a height.

You do a throw, you get a distance.” View photos More (Ian Walton/Getty) Yet as the world’s greatest athlete, Eaton is not, of course, competing against every other great athlete in the world. Some of them are off dunking basketballs, or fighting in a ring, or doing whatever it is one does on an American Ninja Warrior course. Which brings us to the ageless water-cooler debate about the nature of athleticism: Of the A-list athletes playing major sports — the superstars we see splayed across billboards and magazine covers; the ones we hear TV commentators call “athletic freaks” — who, really, is the most athletic? We posed this question to Eaton, expecting to hear him praise the likes of LeBron James, or Mike Trout, or Russell Westbrook. Instead, he gave a surprising answer. “I personally believe tennis is the next most athletic sport next to the decathlon,” Eaton said. “Just because of certain things required. Those matches are three or four hours long. There’s the technical aspect, the agility, the mind-body awareness. Not to mention the game itself is a little bit like a chess match.” Watch Serena Williams approach the net for a swinging volley sometime and you can see where Eaton is coming from.

But it’s still hard to believe that Novak Djokovic or Andy Murray, athletic as they undoubtedly are, really compare with the top NFL or NBA players. “You can speculate all day, by what you perceive people to do, but I think there’s two aspects to athleticism. I think there’s the body, and then there’s definitely the mind,” Eaton said. “People like to just focus on the body part. I don’t think that’s a holistic approach.” View photos More (Ian Walton/Getty) Plus, even with advanced metrics it’s still hard to quantify just how truly “athletic” a feat on a football or basketball field really is. “You see somebody on a football field make a great, athletic 70-yard run, but the athleticism is immeasurable. It’s undoubtedly athletic, but compared to somebody else who did something else, how do you compare it? That’s the great part of track and field. It’s a test, but with results that you can compare to others.” Read More This is all well and good, but it doesn’t answer the question that has tantalized sports fans forever. Who is the world’s most athletic superstar?

“I don’t have one specific person that I think is the most athletic person,” Eaton said. “In my opinion, you’d have to do a really exhaustive study over a long period of time with really clearly defined metrics in order to get that.” In other words, you’d want them to compete in a decathlon. So what if LeBron James announced he was competing in the event this summer, along with — or instead of! — his duties for USA Basketball? Wouldn’t Eaton be slightly worried? “No, I wouldn't,” Eaton said matter-of-factly. “I have no doubt that anybody who did the first day of the decathlon would do great. The first day, yeah, is about being an athlete. But the second day you actually have to be a decathlete, and that’s the day where people show their true colors.” Greatest Olympic athlete? Jim Thorpe, not Usain Bolt - The Washington Post Greatest Olympic athlete? Jim Thorpe, not Usain Bolt The inside track on Washington politics. Be the first to know about new stories from PowerPost. Sign up to follow, and we’ll e-mail you free updates as they’re published. You’ll receive free e-mail news updates each time a new story is published. You’re all set!

By Sally Jenkins By Sally Jenkins Columnist August 10, 2012 Follow @sallyjenx LONDON – Usain Bolt ’s frisky relationship with Olympic solemnity is some of the best entertainment at the London Games. But when it comes to ranking the greatest Olympians ever, Bolt is nowhere near the top of the list. The worship Bolt shouts for belongs more rightly to a 100-year-old dead man who hardly ever spoke up for himself, Jim Thorpe. Bolt has sprinted hard into immortality; he is indisputably the fastest man ever, and maybe one of the most cheerful, too. It doesn’t hurt that he knows how to freeze for the cameras while we’re still trying to recover from the breathless shock of watching him run. But Bolt himself knows that his claim to sit atop the Olympic pantheon with double golds in the 100 and 200 is nonsense. His boasting, “I am the greatest athlete to live, I am a living legend, bask in my glory,” was just a lot of noisy post-victory exultation. He may not even be the best in the Olympic stadium according to the decathletes.

“Just because you’re fast doesn’t make you an athlete,” silver medalist Trey Hardee said. First of all, so many athletes crowd in at the door and jostle for space in the Olympic pantheon that before you can name one above all the others, you have to group and categorize them. Second, these discussions invariably fail to give proper credit to the historical greats. “They skew towards the modern athlete, because no one remembers,” says Olympic historian Bill Mallon. When you talk about greatest Olympic athlete do you mean the one with the most medals? That’s Michael Phelps with his 22 doorknockers hanging around his neck, including that masterful, testing eight in a fortnight at the Beijing Games. But Phelps has the advantage of being able to enter multiple events and claim relays. In which case you might prefer Larisa Latynina, whose 18 gymnastics medals for the Soviet Union at the 1956, 1960 and 1964 Olympics were the record for almost a half-century until Phelps broke it. Do you mean greatest Olympian, as in an athlete who dominated the Games like no other?

Did something so unprecedentedly, and anomalously difficult that it will never be equaled again? That’s Eric Heiden, with his five individual speedskating gold medals at the 1980 Lake Placid Games, setting four Olympic records and one world record over a ridiculous variety of distances. By way of comparison, tell Bolt to win a gold in both the 200 and the 5,000 and see what he says. Do you mean greatest Olympian as in an athlete who won golds at multiple Games, rose to the occasion again and again and exerted his or her dominance over long spans? (If so, you will leave Jesse Owens off the list, but so be it.) That’s Al Oerter with his four straight gold medals in discus, all with personal bests and Olympic records, including his epic feat in 1964 with an injured neck and torn rib cartilage. Unless it’s Carl Lewis, with his nine golds, including four straight in the long jump, or Sir Steven Redgrave with five straight golds in rowing. Or do you find these definitions too limiting?

If what you mean by greatest Olympic athlete ever is someone who displayed such a timeless virtuosity, a combination of agility, stamina, strength, speed, endurance and range that it’s never been matched, well, that’s Thorpe. His performance in the 1912 Stockholm Games has the quality of footprints disappearing in the sand thanks to the International Olympic Committee. It stripped Thorpe of his victories in the now-obsolete pentathlon (five track and field events in a single day) and decathlon for committing the sin of professionalism, when it was discovered he played minor league baseball in Rocky Mount. What survives are some cool gray numbers marked by asterisks, and some half truths. It’s hard to envision what Thorpe did, as long as you think of think of him as a long-dead ghost, or a quaint historical photo. When you think of him you have to think of someone alive. As alive as, say, Bolt. When you think of Thorpe, think of him that way. Or think of Bo Jackson, or Deion Sanders — only stronger.

If you want to bask in glory, bask in this: Thorpe competed in 15 events — and won eight of them — despite losing his track shoes and competing in a mismatched pair, running on a cinder track in a slogging rain. He still turned in a time of 11.2 seconds in the 100-meter dash, which wouldn’t be equaled until 1948. He ran the 1,500 twice. The second time he ran it, after nine decathlon events in two days, he turned in a time of 4 minutes 40.1 seconds that would stand up as the best by a decathlete until 1972. It stands up even now, a hundred years later, against athletes with the finest shoes, training and technology. On Thursday, silver medalist Hardee ran the same distance in 4:40.94. Bask in this: Grantland Rice said, “He moved like a breeze.” One of Thorpe’s teachers at the Carlisle Indian School, a young poet named Marianne Moore, said he had “a kind of ease in his gait that is hard to describe.

Equilibrium with no strictures.” The numbers are too static to summon Thorpe. Try to see the actual being: He was 5 feet 11 and 185 pounds, with a 42-inch chest, 32-inch waist, and 24-inch thighs. See a high jumper so superior that he won a bet by touching a chandelier in the lobby of a Paris hotel. See an athlete of such unbridled magnificence that on a grand tour of Europe following the Summer Games, he beat the Olympic champion Fred Kelly in the high hurdles, and finished second in the shot put to the two-time Olympic champion Ralph Rose, who outweighed him by a hundred pounds. See a man who was as shy as he was great. The fables about Thorpe get in the way of the athlete. King Gustaf of Sweden indeed said, “Sir, you are the greatest athlete in the world.” To which Thorpe was supposed to have said, “Thanks, King.” In fact Thorpe just said, “Thanks,” and then declined a dinner invitation from dignitaries. “I didn’t wish to be gazed upon as a curiosity,” he said. But gaze on him now.

When you do, try to see him as he was, not as a still photograph, but in epic motion. jenkinss@washpost.com The world’s greatest athlete reveals which major pro sport requires the most athleticism – Ideas and good reads Cameron Spencer/Getty When an American Indian named Jim Thorpe won the gold medal in the decathlon at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, legend has it that King Gustav V of Sweden presented him the medal and said, “You, sir, are the greatest athlete in the world.” (“Thanks, King,” Thorpe is rumored to have responded. ) Exactly 100 years later, at the 2012 Olympics in London, Oregon-native Ashton Eaton became the latest in a long line of American Olympians to win the gold medal in the decathlon. He had previously set the world record in the event at the U.S. Olympic trials, but as with every decathlete since Thorpe’s win in 1912, it was winning the Olympic gold that earned Eaton the formidable title of the world’s greatest athlete.

(Queen Elizabeth II was not, unfortunately, in attendance to present Eaton with his medal.) Spanning two days and ten events, the decathlon is, and has always been, sports’ best objective measurement of sheer athleticism. And Eaton is so convincingly great at the ten-sport contest that his times and scores in certain single events are comparable, and often better, than those track & field athletes competing exclusively in that one event. “The decathlon is the only standardized test that covers a broad range of athleticism that is absolutely measurable, which I feel is great,” Eaton told Business Insider this week while promoting his campaign with Chobani. “You run the 100, you get a time. You do the long-jump, you get a distance. You do the high jump, you get a height. You do a throw, you get a distance.” Cameron Spencer/GettyYet as the world’s greatest athlete, Eaton is not, of course, competing against every other great athlete in the world. Some of them are off dunking basketballs, or fighting in a ring, or doing whatever it is one does on an American Ninja Warrior course.

Which brings us to the ageless water-cooler debate about the nature of athleticism: of the a-list athletes playing major sports — the superstars we see splayed across billboards and magazine covers; the ones we hear TV commentators call “athletic freaks” — who, really, is the most athletic? We posed this question to Eaton, expecting to hear him praise the likes of LeBron James, or Mike Trout, or LeBron James. Instead, he gave a surprising answer. “I personally believe tennis is the next most athletic sport next to the decathlon,” Eaton said. “Just because of certain things required. Those matches are three or four hours long, there’s the technical aspect, the agility, the mind-body awareness. Not to mention the game itself is a little bit like a chess match.” Watch Serena Williams approach the net for a swinging volley sometime and you can see where Eaton is coming from. But it’s still hard to believe that Novak Djokovic or Andy Murray, athletic as they undoubtedly are, really compares with the top NFL or NBA players. “You can speculate all day, by what you perceive people to do, but I think there’s two aspects to athleticism.

I think there’s the body, and then there’s definitely the mind,” Eaton said. “People like to just focus on the body part. I don’t think that’s a holistic approach.” Cameron Spencer/Getty Plus, even with advanced metrics it’s still hard to quantify just how truly “athletic” a feat on a football or basketball field really is. “You see somebody on a football field make a great, athletic 70-yard run, but the athleticism is immeasurable. It’s undoubtedly athletic, but compared to somebody else who did something else, how do you compare it? That’s the great part of track and field. It’s a test, but with results that you can compare to others.” This is all well and good, but it doesn’t answer the question that has tantalized sports fans forever. Who is the world’s most athletic superstar? “I don’t have one specific person that I think is the most athletic person,” Eaton said. “In my opinion, you’d have to do a really exhaustive study over a long period of time with really clearly defined metrics in order to get that.” In other words, you’d want them to compete in a decathlon.

So what if LeBron James announced he was competing in the event this summer, along with — or instead of! — his duties for USA Basketball? Wouldn’t Eaton be slightly worried? “No, I wouldn’t,” Eaton said matter-of-factly. “I have no doubt that anybody who did the first day of the decathlon would do great. The first day, yeah, is about being an athlete. But the second day you actually have to be a decathlete, and that’s the day where people show their true colors.” 1912 Olympics 1912 Olympics The belligerence of 1908 was replaced with benevolence four years later, as Sweden provided a well-organized and pleasant haven for the troubled Games. And then there were Jim Thorpe and Hannes Kolehmainen. Thorpe, a 24-year-old American Indian who was a two-time consensus All-America football player at Carlisle (Pa.) Institute, won the two most demanding events in track and field–the pentathlon and decathlon. And he did it with ease.

“You sir,” said the Swedes' King Gustav V at the medal ceremony, “are the greatest athlete in the world.” To which Thorpe is said to have replied, “Thanks, King.” Kolehmainen, a 22-year-old Finnish vegetarian, ran away with three distance events being run for the first time–the 5,000 and 10,000-meter races and the 12,000-meter cross-country run. He also picked up a silver medal in the 12,000-meter team race. Ralph Craig of the U.S. was the only other winner of two individual track gold medals, taking both the 100 and 200-meter runs. The 100 final had seven false starts, one with Craig sprinting the entire distance before being called back. Although Thorpe returned to the U.S. a hero, a year later it was learned that he had played semi-pro baseball for $25 a week in 1909 and 1910. The IOC, with the full support of the American Olympic Committee, stripped him of his medals and erased his records.

The medals and records were restored in 1982–29 years after Thorpe's death. "Sir, you are the greatest athlete in the world." - King Gustav V of Sweden. "Thanks, King." - Jim Thorpe When the above exchange took place on an Olympic stage at Stockholm in 1912 it was perhaps more notable for its cultural irony than a celebration of athletic excellence. The laconic youth conversing with a European monarch was a Sac and Fox Indian, born to modest circumstances on a farm near Prague, Okla., on May 28, 1888. His birth preceded by 12 years the advent of "The American Century" - and came two years before the slaughter at Wounded Knee in South Dakota ended, forever, the native American dream of independence. Yet, before a generation had passed, Jim Thorpe was the idol of a nation fast becoming obsessed with sports and sports heroes. Thorpe's achievements during the second decade of the 1900's make him perhaps the greatest all-around athlete of the century.

A storied football All -American on Glenn "Pop" Warner's teams at the Carlisle Indian School and a double gold medal winner in the 1912 (Olympics, Thorpe - who later played baseball for the New York Giants and became a founder of the NFL - was indeed an American hero. "He had an exceptional life," said Bill Thorpe, 70, a retired aircraft worker living in Arlington, Texas, and one of four children from Thorpe's second marriage. "I think that, because of his great athletic achievements, he never personally suffered any discrimination from being an Indian. And because I was his son, neither did I." In 1950, three years before his death of a heart attack, Thorpe was voted the greatest American athlete of the century's first 50 years in -a poll of sports editors conducted by the Associated Press. Babe Ruth finished second. Grace Thorpe figures the result should be the same for the century as a whole. The youngest of four children from Thorpe's first marriage, she has drafted a petition and resolution presenting her father's case as the greatest athlete of the century.

"I think I have pretty good evidence," said Thorpe, 77, who lives in Prague, near where her father grew up. "Name somebody else who played Major League Baseball and professional football and won two gold medals in the Olympics. "Go up to the Pro Football Hall of fame in Canton, and the first thing you see when you walk in is a statue of my father - like he's coming right at you." Thorpe's life, however, was hardly a grand procession of triumphs. BRIGHT PATH The son of Hiram and Charlotte Thorpe, his Indian - name Wa-Tho-Huk - meant "Bright Path," and in the beginning, Thorpe had a great friend and playmate; a twin brother, Charlie. They were inseparable, and the first great blow of Thorpe's life came at age 9 when CharIie dies of pneumonia. "He told me once that he thought some of that tremendous energy he had might have rightfully belonged to his brother," Grace Thorpe said. "He felt he had somehow taken it away from Charlie, and it haunted him." As a teen-ager, he lost both of his parents and eventually was sent to the great Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pa.

"The Indian schools of that day were the brainchild of Richard Henry Patt," Grace said. "He was army lieutenant back in the 1870s who captured a large number of Apaches and was amazed at how quickly they picked up the English language. "He eventually founded Carlisle, and the idea was to create a comfortable atmosphere for assimilating the native peoples into the white culture .The schools were remarkably successful in their purpose, but they also totally destroyed the family." At Carlisle, Thorpe found a mentor in Warner, a future bride in class-mate Iva Miller and great fame as America's premier athlete Warner's Carlisle teams were among the most amazing in history: famed far annually taking on a gauntlet of Eastern powers - then the cream of collegiate football - and defeating all but one or two per year. 'Their triumphs were legendary; a 1911 victory over mighty Harvard and a 27-6 victory in 1912 army team featuring halfback Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Extremely swift and noted for a running style that sometimes knocked opposing tacklers cold, Thorpe was an All-American in 1911 and 1912 when he scored 25 touchdowns and 198 points. In between those two seasons, he represented his country in the Summer Olympics. Traveling with him was Carlisle teammate Louis Tewanima, a distance runner so formidable he once won a 2-mile race after running the 18 miles to Harrisburg, Pa., for the event. But it was Thorpe who excelled in Stockholm, winning the Games most grueling events - the pentathlon and decathlon. To win the two medals that would soon be taken from him, Thorpe had to compete in 15 events - five in the pentathlon (broad jump, javelin, discus, 200 meters and 1,500 meters) and 10 in the decathlon (100 meters, broad jump, high jump, shot put, 400 meters, 110-meter hurdles, discus, javelin, pole vault and 1,500 meters).

Thorpe accumulated enough points - including 8,412.96 points in the decathlon, then a world record - to win, two golds and the admiration of a king. SADNESS In the years after his departure from Carlisle, Thorpe played six major league seasons - mostly with John McGraw's Giants - and 15 years of pro football with the Canton Bulldogs, Oorang Indians, Chicago Cardinals and others. He was the first president of the league that eventually became the NFL. Two marriages dissolved, and he filled his later years with work in Hollywood and speaking engagements. Bill Thorpe remembers his father as "happy-go-lucky,'' a generous man with many, many friends. Grace has a different recollection. "He really had a rather unhappy life," she said, "very sad personally, if you think about it. His twin brother died as a child, and he never completely got over it. "He lost his mother when he was 15, and later, when his father died, he was away at school and no one even bothered to tell him. He became an orphan, and later his own first-born son (Jim Jr.) died as a child.

He married the love of his life my mother - but she' finally left him, and so did Freeda (Bill's mother). He had a lot of sadness." In 1913, Thorpe was stripped of his Olympic records and medals because he had received money for playing semi-pro baseball. Although the rules of the day were -- "Basically, they used me as a guinea pig to make up the rules," Thorpe once said - the decision stood until long after his death March 28, 1953. "The notion that he was a 'professional' at the time of the Olympics is ridiculous," Bill Thorpe said. "He competed in athletics for the sheer exhilaration of it. He was a natural athlete and he just loved doing it - all of it. He grew up in the country, breaking wild horses and playing a kind of follow-the-leader game with the other boys, in which they all learned to excel at a lot of different things." The records and medals were restored in 1982 through the efforts of the Thorpe family and others - notably Robert Wheeler, who became president of the Jim Thorpe Foundation and author of the book Thorpe, World's Greatest Athlete.

"I asked him about it once," Grace said, "and all he said was, 'I never wrote a letter to anyone trying to get them back.' "But his eyes burned when he said it, and it obviously bothered him all of his life. When the metals were finally restored, we all had a great feeling of accomplishment." The breakup of her parents' marriage, Grace says, was an early manifestation of a now-familiar syndrome. "Let's just say that a profession athlete does not usually make a great husband," she said. "On the road, he would go out and drink with the others after a game - so did McGraw for that matter - and because they were famous men, there were always women available.

It was just tough an my mom, and she' finally ended it." Thorpe's relationship with John McGraw was never easy either, and his career with the Giants ended because - take your pick - he drank too much and was not ready to play; McGraw wanted him to give up football; or, the relationship ended one day when Thorpe chased McGraw around the field after the famous manager called him a "dumb Indian." Grace Thorpe simply remembers that, "McGraw's wife, Blanche, was very kind to my mother and remained her friend for years.'' As far her father, she said, "He didn't talk much normally, and you had to pull things out of him. "He was an honest, serious man ... stoic, ...who worked hard to take care of his family. The most money he ever made a- an athlete was maybe $10,000 - it's ridiculous what they make today - and there were always financial needs." LEGACY At the moment, Grace Thorpe's world revolves around making sure that the 1950 vote holds true for the century.

"Well, he never had a big PR machine back when he was alive," she said, or he might have made more money flow. Right now I'm it - a 77-year-old lady livin' on Social Security. But I get a lot of mail. "The other day, a guy from Japan sent me a book he wrote about my dad. It looks good, but it's written in Japanese, so I realy can't read it."She also has received a call from Tom NcNabb, author of Donovan's Run. Who is working on a new book. "The hero of the book is a black track star," she said, "trying to win the greatest race of his life. "Running against the ghost of Jim Thorpe." Athlete of the Century Campaign (1888-1953) James Francis Thorpe accomplished arguably what no other athlete in history has. The Sac and Fox Indian won gold medals in the pentathlon and decathlon in the 1912 Olympic games in Sweden and played both professional football and professional baseball. His feats on the football field put him on the 1911 and 1912 All-American football teams.

In 1920 he became the first president of the American Professional Football Association (later to become the NFL). Jim Thorpe, the football star and Olympic legend whom Sweden's King Gustav V called "the greatest athlete in the world." was named, in 1950, by the Associated Press the greatest football player and greatest all-round athlete for the first 50 years of this century. Grace Thorpe believes that there will be a naming of the greatest athlete of the century. When others fail to give her father his due, Grace Thorpe doesn't hesitate to take them on. In 1982, Grace won her five-year battle to get the International Olympic Committee to return the two gold medals - for the decathlon and pentathlon - that her father had won in Stockholm in 1912. The medals were stripped from him after it was discovered that he had played semiprofessional baseball as a student at Carlisle Indian Industrial School. "The modern day Olympics started in 1896, and they had no hard and fast rules on mixing professional and amateur sports. They sort of made the rules on Dad," said Grace.

With four years to go until the year 2000, Grace Thorpe doesn't think she started the athlete-of-the-century drive too soon. "Things take a long time." she said, "I don't want any mix-ups like the one where they've proposed having the 1996 Olympic Torch Relay-Run coming through Yale, which they had been calling Dad's birthplace. Dad's birthplace was near the town of Prague (Oklahoma)." As she travels around the country to Indian ceremonies and environmental gatherings, she frequently sets up booths and asks people to sign two petitions - one declaring her father athlete of the century and another for a ban on nuclear activities. Grace, whose Indian name is No Ten O Quah (Wind Woman), is president of the National Environmental Coalition of Native Americans (NECONA) which fights efforts for the burial of nuclear wastes on Indian Lands. This information was compiled from articles printed in People Weekly Magazine, 01/08/96 Vol.45, No.1 and Tulsa World Newspaper, 12/10/95. "Jim Thorpe, World's Greatest Athlete" by Gregory Richards.

Foreward by Grace Thorpe who is spearheading a campaign declaring Jim Thorpe "America's Greatest All Around Athlete of the Century". Excellent for Jr. High ages up. Personally autographed and inscribed by Ms. Thorpe to the recipient. Hard cover. $23.00 (tax/mailing included) Proceeds go toward the "Jim Thorpe for Athlete of the Century" Campaign. Send check or money order to: NECONA, 2213 W. 8th St., Prague, OK 74864, ph(405) 567-4297, Chickasaw Nation. email: neconaok@earthlink.net National Environmental Coalition Of Native Americans NECONA

Question: """You, sir, are the greatest athlete in the world."" ""Thanks, King."" Which athlete?"
Answer: Jim Thorpe